Radiology increasingly replaces surgery

Radiology increasingly replaces surgery - Nightly News with Brian Williams - MSNBC.com

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Bruce Tempone is undergoing treatment for varicose veins in his legs. In the past this would have required surgery, including a day in the hospital and weeks of recovery.

But with the help of ultrasound, Dr. Robert Min guides a laser repair device into the veins. The entire procedure is over within an hour and Tempone recovers immediately.

This vein repair is one of dozens of procedures that fall into the expanding field of medicine called "interventional radiology" — often replacing more costly and difficult surgery. Doctors can now repair all sorts of organs by running tubes through various blood vessels. They're guided by live images such as X-rays, ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging.